Fishing: Google Maps is your Friend

 As the old saying goes "a friend in need is a friend indeed" and, as I've experienced this firsthand, Google Maps is that friend.  How so you ask?  I'll give some brief points and then elaborate below.

** Map Spotting Locations

** Safety

** Navigation

First point is MAP SPOTTING LOCATIONS.  

What do I mean by that you ask?  You can technically do this technique with anything reference mapping so long as you have knowledge about what your looking at.  It's a time-honored skill taught to most militaries and their strategists.  Wars have been won, cities conquered, firefighters saving cities from wildfires, rescue crews saving people stuck in perilous locations, and people traveling from point A to point B and not dying in the process.......  all from Map Spotting.

Map Spotting in a nutshell is looking at a map, its surrounding terrain, apply your knowledge of the subject at hand, and make an educated decision based on the data from the map and xp.

"But Mr. Jon, how does this all apply to fishing?"  

That is a good question with a not-so-direct answer.  If you've been fishing for awhile, you know how the fish operate - either Trout, Salmon, Pike, Bass, Catfish, or other types - you know how they operate.  That's the XP i mentioned previously.

We will take one of my favorite "Power Hour" lakes I fish on a regular basis.  Below is Cushman Lake, part of the Tanana Lakes Recreational Area in the southern part of Fairbanks, AK, courtesy Google Maps.

As you can see, I've already got five favored points marked on my Google Maps, which is a side-note nice feature for Google Maps.  This is where XP comes into play.

Knowing what I know about Trout and Landlock Salmon, these are the most particular areas that I suspected (and confirmed) to find them at. That is because of other information provided throughout the internet.  

It is not known to me in other states, however Alaska Dept. Fish and Game (ADFG) provides Bathymetric Maps of all the lakes in the state, stocked and wild.  This is a stocked lake, and here is the Bathymetric Map, courtesy of ADFG.

By combining the information provided by ADFG and looking at my phone on Google Maps, I can associate that certain points have certain depth to them.  Knowing that fish like a certain temperature and certain baitfish, and knowing those baitfish have specific patterns and depths as well, this leads me back to the favored spots on the Google Map.

Curve ball time.  What if I wanted to go Northern Pike fishing in this lake?  Yes there are Northern Pike in this lake as well, albeit a bit more difficult to catch that massive sized pike you see in fishing videos.  

Zooming in a bit closer on Google Maps in satellite mode, and comparing to the ADFG Bathymetric Map, I can conclude the following area is shallow, full of plant growth.  Knowing about Northern Pike and researching pike will lead you down the path that pike are ambush predators from the tall grass.  In the image below, you can see the streaks of plant life showing and identify the shallow parts of the lake, far from the normal constraints of human - you are hard pressed to find people on the water in these parts of the lake on any normal "after work" type of day.

Note:  I don't have any favored spots for Pike as they like to roam within their zone, so just knowing their zone is good enough for me.

I ENCOURAGE YOU TO TRY THIS WITH A LOCAL LAKE TO GO FISHING.  LOOK AT THE MAP, LEARN YOUR TARGET SPECIES, APPLY WHAT YOU KNOW TO THE LAKE AND COME TO A CONCLUSION OF WHERE THE FISH ARE GENERALLY, AND THEN GO FISHING.  

Moving on to why Google Maps is your friend during a fishing trip is SAFETY

It is very hard-pressed to find a person in my area that doesn't have a phone with Google Maps on it, or a smartphone for that matter.  Short version, if it has Google Maps, or comes pre-loaded with a mapping software of some kind, then it has a decent enough GPS antenna.

From my XP, I've learned the following statement, and you can call B.S. on me and then we can go on a drive in Alaska and I will gladly prove you wrong:  "Just because you don't have cellphone signal does not mean your GPS stops working - and if it does, its not the hardware, it's the cellphone provider stopping it."  

There are several places that, once you get out far enough, there is no cellphone signal whatsoever.  This is where Google's share location feature comes into play.  Every time I go out to one of my "Daytripper" fishing locations, I share my location with family and friends.   They know where I'm at, down to however accurate Google displays it to them.

A small bit of the technical aspects.  You tell Google to share your location, either a select amount of time or until you turn it off.  Your phone is already communicating with satellites and sharing its location with Google even before you leave town.  

Phone <--> Satellite.  The GPS chip ID is in the Satellite Network

Google <--> Satellite.  Google also has that chip data and communicates/searches/pulls said Satellite Network for that GPS chip data ID

Google <--> Your family and friends.  Your family and friends see a little blue dot on their phone to see where you are at.

IF I KNOW I WILL BE GOING ANYWHERE OUTSIDE OF CELL SERVICE WHERE I CAN'T CALL FOR HELP, I WILL DO THIS EVERY SINGLE TIME WITHOUT FAIL.

NAVIGATION while fishing via the use of Google Maps

My first point on this subject of using Google Maps to Navigate while fishing is built up from the last two points.  

Most lake data, especially stocked lake data, is uploaded to the internet somewhere, and Google most likely has access to that lake data - especially its location.  The app on your phone keeps a cache of data, normally of where your phone travels the most.  It makes it easier to share data with Google this way for analytics purposes.  Couple that with satellite tracking, and you have the perfect trio for navigation.

My second point on this subject directly piggybacks off the first point, and I will explain with an example.  Along the Denali Highway, a highway that runs along the south end of the Alaska Range, are a series of lakes.  One such series of lakes is the Tangle Lakes Recreational Area, as seen below courtesy of Google Maps.

Looking at the map, you can almost assume where I'm going with this.  I know from others that there is spotty cell signal at Tangle Lake Lodge, so one could assume that at the campground it would be even less spotty.  However, with the joys of GPS and cached map data, I can travel to Upper Tangle Lakes via kayak/on foot with relative certainty I know where I'm going.

There are so many other instances where I'm out fishing, following a Map Spot, but need some kind of guidance to the location in question, or just general navigation to know where I'm at, where I've been, and where I'm going.

In Conclusion...

I hope this was a bit informative on how Google Maps, and a little bit of XP, can go a long way with regards to fishing.  I wrote about the use of Map Spotting to estimate where the fish are.  I talked about the Safety aspects of sharing your location.  I finally spoke about the joys of off-grid navigation.

I hope you found this informative.  Happy fishing everyone.